


at two and ten

by beamkatanachronicles



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Post-Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:21:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28995885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beamkatanachronicles/pseuds/beamkatanachronicles
Summary: She doesn't look over at all, her eyes fixed on his in the mirror and yet just as far-off, stare just as stretched-out, as the sprawl of the open highway.
Relationships: Kurashiki Akane & Carlos
Kudos: 8





	at two and ten

Aoi-- Akane's brother, Carlos had learned-- is their driver. The man is quiet, but he drives like _he's_ the one who's barely escaped with his life: as they speed on, strands of pale hair whip wildly about Aoi's face, buffeted by the wind. (Until, of course, Junpei had demanded they roll all the windows back up.) At least the roads are empty. Mercifully, their route has been traffic-free for over an hour, and conversation-free for at least half of that-- thanks in no small part to Junpei nodding off. Carlos watches the younger man's head loll about in sleep before his forehead finally smacks against the opposite window.

Aoi snorts. Akane swats at his arm, pouting.

All over again, he feels like a third wheel. Carlos exhales, casting a dull gaze out the passenger side window. Arid desert stretches out in all directions; scrubby plants push up faded and green out of the dust and rock, the crumbling asphalt. The highway snakes endlessly up and down hills and valleys, disappearing finally into the cloudless blue maw of the distant horizon. You could really get lost here, he thinks. Even a rescue team might not have a shot this far out in the wilderness.

A pothole, and a body tumbling into him, interrupt his reverie. Carlos gingerly pushes Junpei off his chest and back onto the opposite side of the car, which is the moment he realizes there is blood on his right sleeve.

"Carlos?"

The tires spinning on asphalt. Aoi's hands, hanging dutifully onto the wheel. Akane's eyes are blinking back at him in the rear view mirror, brows knitted together with worry. And Carlos catches his own face, too. Something is gone out of it: the few faint lines present are heavier than they ought to be, deep with exhaustion in spite of how long he's slept. 

How long _has_ he slept?

"I--" He can't remember anymore. He falters. "Junpei really sleeps like a log, doesn't he?"

"Yeah," she replies, wistful. One of the car's windows must not be rolled up all the way: the wind whistles faintly, like a persistent ringing in Carlos' ear. "Just like when we were kids."

"You've really been through a lot together." Beside him, Junpei sighs in his sleep.

Akane's mouth smiles. "I think you should get some rest, too. We've... all had a long day."

"What about you?" He cocks his head. "'We' includes you, too, y'know. Not like you're driving."

"I'll be okay." Her gaze lowers from the rear view as she spreads her open palms over her skirt. "I've had _much_ longer days, all things considered."

Carlos falls silent, thumbing his sleeve. 

"Forty-five years of them, right?"

Akane's reflection, glancing up at him again, purses her lips. "You remembered."

He hums. "A lot of the details fade in and out between histories, but I wouldn't forget something like that." They cruise over another bump. Junpei lies still. "You said something about starting over in that one. Another forty-five years..."

Beside Akane, the skin pulls taut over the bones of Aoi's knuckles, still gripped in place at two and ten.

"How much do _you_ remember, Akane?"

She doesn't look over at all, her eyes fixed on his in the mirror and yet just as far-off, stare just as stretched-out, as the sprawl of the open highway. Enough miles pass that he expects he won't receive an answer, but at last, she speaks, her temple pressed to the coolness of the window.

"Everything. So, even if you blame me for what I've done..."

"Akane," he says.

"I hope you can understand the things I've spared you."

Delta's blood is not just on his sleeve. Dark, rusty spots seem to keep sprouting every time Carlos looks down at himself: his collar, his other sleeve. A pinprick-drop that lies in the dead center of his otherwise pristine undershirt.

"I never said I did."

"If," Akane says. "I don't know yet, and I won't ask."

Junpei's head is bowed. In the opposite window's reflection, Carlos thinks he sees him blink.

With his right hand, Carlos reaches for Akane, her fingers warm in his palm, angled too awkwardly to hold just right. With his left, he rolls up his sleeve.

Aoi rolls down the driver's side window, and the wind roars around them all again.

**Author's Note:**

> tragically, junpei was Actually asleep when his face was in carlos' boobs. u___u


End file.
